NTPC strives to become cost cognizant

By Sukanta Kumar Mohanty

Bhubaneswar, March 16: India’s largest power producer, NTPC Ltd, is striving to elevate fuel supply for pit head plants to reduce cost for electricity generation. In a step towards making NTPC a more cost-conscious organization and making electricity generation more affordable and sustainable, NTPC Darlipali Super Thermal Power Plant (STPP) has signed a pact with NTPC Dulanga Coal Mines (DLCMP) in the state of Odisha for captive coal supply.

Being the cost cognizant organisation, NTPC Ltd. is making use of all its internal means to reduce the cost of electricity. The cost structure of coal across India is high, a huge proportion of coal costs emerges from high transportation charges due to unavailability of coal locally. Power Plants rely on external entities for road transportation and railways to evacuate coal from mines. NTPC is adopting various initiatives for supply of coal at a minimised cost to make the ecosystem more affordable and sustainable.

In its endeavour to provide continuous electricity at affordable cost across the country, Darlipali Super Thermal Power Plant will source the majority part of the coal supply from Dulanga Coal Mines (DLCMP). This will reduce dependency of Darlipali STPP on external sources for regular supply of coal. The pact has substantially helped in lowering the cost of coal. The proximity of the mine and the power plant has also helped in reduction of fuel supply, setting an example of a pit head power plant yielding lower cost of energy.

Moreover, the cost of harnessing power can be significantly reduced if the coal delivered to power plants are of a smaller size. Dulanga Coal Mines is presently utilising surface miners to produce coal with a size of -100mm, which not only saves time while unloading but also reduces the number of resources required for crushing and eliminates drilling and blasting.

NTPC Darlipali is one of the company’s newest members and was established in 2014. The power station is under Eastern Region – II, and is functioning at an installed capacity of 1600 MW. Along with Darlipali Super Thermal Power Project, NTPC operates Dulanga Coal Mines, the company’s first captive coal mine in Odisha located in Sundergarh district, with the ambition of providing continuous electricity to its customers at reliable costs.

This initiative by NTPC has helped substantially lower the cost of coal, thereby making it the best example of a pit head power plant with lower cost of energy.